Editing Gerbe (section)

== History ==
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Gerbes first appeared in the context of [[algebraic geometry]]. They were subsequently developed in a more traditional geometric framework by Brylinski {{harv|Brylinski|1993}}.  One can think of gerbes as being a natural step in a hierarchy of mathematical objects providing geometric realizations of integral [[cohomology]] classes.

A more specialised notion of gerbe was introduced by [[Michael Murray (mathematician)|Murray]] and called [[bundle gerbes]]. Essentially they are a [[smooth function|smooth]] version of abelian gerbes belonging more to the hierarchy starting with [[principal bundle]]s than sheaves. Bundle gerbes have been used in [[gauge theory]] and also [[string theory]]. Current work by others is developing a theory of [[non-abelian bundle gerbe]]s.